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Story: VOICES OF PEACE FROM GROUND ZERO, DEMOCRACY NOW! AND WBAI BROADCAST AROUND THE WORLD ON PACIFICA RADIO, COMMUNITY RADIO STATIONS, PUBLIC ACCESS CABLE TELEVISION, DISHNETWORK CHANNEL 9415 , FREE SPEECH TV AND THE BBC
Welcome to our listeners around the world.
I'm Amy Goodman with Juan Gonzalez WBAI's Bernard White and Robert Knight. We're just blocks from where the towers of the World Trade Center stood until 1 year ago today. We're broadcasting from Chinatown, one of the hardest hit communities in the aftermath of 9/11 and from a century old firehouse, especially poignant as close to 400 firefighters died having rushed to the scene to save victims.
This anniversary is being observed against a backdrop of heightened militarism as the mainstream media beats the drums for war.
Pacifica was founded more than 50 years ago by a man who refused to fight wars. He came out of the World War Two detention camps and said, media outlets should be run by journalists and artists, not by corporations that profit from war. And that's how our network, Pacifica Radio, was born.
And in the opening segment of today's show, we are broadcasting on the BBC's Jimmy Young Program. It is the largest daytime talk show on the BBC, and reaches 5 million listeners around the world.
Guests:
- Brian Hayes, with The Jimmy Young Program on BBC Radio 2.
- David Potorti, lost his brother in the World Trade Center.
- Andrew Rice, lost his brother in the World Trade Center.
Related link: Story: DEMOCRACY NOW! ASKS THE NEW YORK TIMES AND CNN WHY THEY DON'T COVER THE ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT Dave Potorti is part of Peaceful Tomorrows, a group of family members who lost loved ones at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon They marched from Washington to New York last November to honor the dead and protest the bombing of Afghanistan. While the media covered them as family members of victims, it wasn't as willing to convey their anti-war point of view.
At a United Nations conference of media executives and reporters on 'News vs. Propaganda', Democracy Now!'s senior producer questioned Barbara Crossette of the New York Times and CNN Vice President Karen Curry about this issue.
Tape:
- Kris Abrams, senior producer of Democracy Now!, asks the New York Times and CNN why there is so little coverage of the anti-war movement.
- Barbara Crossette, New York Times.
- Karen Curry, Vice President and New York Bureau Chief of CNN.
- Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief, Al Quds Al-Arabi, an Arabic-language daily based in London.
Story: HUMAN RIGHTS LAWYER LYNNE STEWART DISCUSSES HER ARREST Lynne Stewart is a longtime radical human rights attorney from New York. She faces up to 20 years in prison on charges that she helped her client Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman deliver messages from his Minnesota prison cell to his followers in Egypt. In 1995, Sheik Rahman was accused of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
In April, she was arrested and agents searched her Manhattan office for documents. She was indicted and released on $500,000 personal recognizance bond.
Guest:
- Lynne Stewart, radical human rights attorney, arrested in April on charges that she helped her client Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman deliver messages from his Minnesota prison cell to his followers in Egypt.
Related link: Second Hour Story: SOUNDS OF SEPTEMBER 11
Story: OVER 300 FIREFIGHTERS AND PARAMEDICS HAVE THE 'WORLD TRADE CENTER COUGH': A ROUNDTABLE DISCUSSION ON ENVIRONMENTAL DEVASTATION NEAR GROUND ZERO
A year after their unprecedented rescue attempt at the World Trade Center, about 600 New York City firefighters and paramedics remain sidelined with disabilities sustained on Sept. 11, and more than half have developed a condition doctors have dubbed, "World Trade Center cough," Newsday reports. We'll look at the environmental affect of the collapse of the Twin Towers.
Guest:
- Joel Kupferman, executive director of the New York Environmental Law and Justice Project. He filed a Freedom of Information Act request that made public over 800 documents related to the environmental consequences of the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
- Shirley Kwan, who co-founded the Lower Manhattan Residents Relief Coalition following Sept. 11 to help residents of lower Manhattan organize and mobilize to create a strong, united and permanent voice that will fight for the community's needs.
Related link: Story: THOUSANDS OF PEOPLE ACROSS THE U.S. HAVE BEEN DETAINED IN THE LAST YEAR Thousands of people across the United States have been detained in the past year. The government acknowledges that the overwhelming majority had little to do with the attacks. Detainees are being shipped across the country and held in secret. They often do not have proper access to lawyers. Many times their families have no idea where they are. Many are losing their jobs.
Guests:
- Michael Ratner, lawyer, Center for Constitutional Rights.
- Bobby Khan, Pakistani immigrant rights activist, Coney Island Avenue Project.
Related link: Story: AT 8:45 AM EST ONE YEAR AGO, THE FIRST HIJACKED PLANE CRASHED INTO THE NORTH TOWER OF THE WTC: A MEMORIAL WITH FATHER DANIEL BERRIGAN, DAR WILLIAMS, AND OTHERS At 8:45 am EST one year ago, American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
Tape:
- "No News," a film by Bushra Azzouz.
Guest:
- Father Daniel Berrigan, priest, poet, prisoner and political activist. Along with his brother Philip, Daniel Berrigan burned draft files in a Catonsville, Maryland parking lot back in 1968 to protest the Vietnam War. The action led to harsh prison terms for the two brothers and seven others. But it also propelled the Berrigans into the national spotlight and sparked a nationwide series of draft-file burning.
Tape:
- "Sliding Off the Edge of the World: Two Little Girls at Ground Zero," a film by Mark Street.
Guest:
- Dar Williams, singer and songwriter. The Green World is her latest album.
Related link: Third Hour Story: RITA LASAR LOST HER BROTHER IN THE WORLD TRADE CENTER: SHE REMEMBERS SEPTEMBER 11 AND CALLS FOR PEACE
Today is September 11, 2002. One year ago, at the time of this broadcast, 9:03 a.m. EST, the second hijacked plane hit the second tower of the World Trade Center.
Among the thousands of people trapped inside was Abe Zelmanowitz. His sister, Rita Lasar, remembers the day.
Tape:
- Rita Lasar, sister of Abe Zelmanowitz, who perished in the World Trade Center.
Story: ODETTA SINGS TO MARK THE TIME UNITED AIRLINES FLIGHT 175 FROM BOSTON CRASHED INTO THE SOUTH TOWER OF THE WTC ONE YEAR AGO Considered the "Queen of American Folk Music," Odetta has introduced audiences worldwide to American roots music and especially African-American folk, blues and gospel. As a major voice in the American Civil Rights Movement, she marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma, sang for the masses in Washington in 1963, and performed for President John F. Kennedy at a civil rights presentation on national television.
She has shared the stage with Paul Robeson, Nina Simone, Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, and many others. Harry Belafonte once said, "Odetta is a vast influence on our cultural life."
On September 29, 1999, President Bill Clinton presented Odetta with the National Endowment for the Arts' Medal of the Arts. Story: RITA LASAR MEETS MASUDA SULTAN, AN AFGHAN-AMERICAN WHO LOST 19 MEMBERS OF HER FAMILY IN THE US BOMBING OF AFGHANISTAN
Within a month, the bombs started to fall on Afghanistan. A few months later, Rita Lasar, who lost her brother Abe in the World Trade Center, decided to go to Afghanistan. In the midst of her deepest grief, Rita said the killing of innocent civilians should not be avenged by the killing of innocent civilians. We followed her on her trip.
A few days before she took that trip in January, she came to our studio, and met for the first time Masuda Sultan, an Afghan American who lost 19 members of her family
Tape:
- Rita Lasar, who lost her brother in the World Trade Center, traveled to Afghanistan.
- Masuda Sultan, an Afghan-American describing how she discovered the US had killed 19 members of her family in the bombing of Afghanistan
Guest:
- Masuda Sultan, Afghan-American citizen who lost 19 members of her family.
Story: FORMER US ATTORNEY GENERAL RAMSEY CLARK AND INDEPENDENT FILMMAKER JON ALPERT DISCUSS IRAQ At the height of the Gulf War, newsman Jon Alpert, a long-time contributor to NBC News, shot the only footage of the war's impact not censored by either Iraq or the U.S. Traveling with former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, Alpert captured on camera what it was like to be on the ground during the allied bombing. In dramatic and often graphic scenes, the film "Nowhere To Hide" shows a far different reality than what most Americans saw on the nightly news. Although several networks initially expressed strong interest in the footage, all declined to air it, and NBC ended its long affiliation with Alpert, a seven-time Emmy-winner.
Guest:
- Jon Alpert, filmmaker, journalist & founder of DCTV.
Related link: We go now to a clip of 'Inside Iraq' excerpted from Alpert's footage. The scene is Basra where people are standing next to a gigantic crater filled with water and surrounded by rubble. The US had just bombed. Guest:
- Ramsey Clark, former U.S. Attorney General.
Story: DEMOCRACY NOW! ARCHIVAL AUDIO We go now back to September 11, 2001. This is Democracy Now's broadcast from the firehouse in the moments and hours after the towers were hit.
Tape:
- Archival audio of Democracy Now! on September 11, 2001 with WBAI reporter Robert Knight and co-founder of WBIX Ryme Kathouda.
Fourth Hour Story: MARTIN LUTHER KING III, ODETTA, AND GREG PALAST ON TERROR HERE AT HOME, CIVIL RIGHTS, PATRIOTISM, AND THE STOLEN ELECTION
Many people say this is the day terror came to the United States. But a number of communities in this country have known terror for a long time.
Guests:
- Martin Luther King III, president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization his father founded in 1957. His father was assassinated April 4, 1968.
- Odetta, blues, folk, gospel singer. Considered the "Queen of American Folk Music," Odetta has introduced audiences worldwide to American roots music and especially African-American folk, blues and gospel. As a major voice in the American Civil Rights Movement, she marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma, sang for the masses in Washington in 1963, and performed for President John F. Kennedy at a civil rights presentation on national television.
- Greg Palast, investigative reporter with the BBC. Palast just won a Project Censored award for his piece in the London Guardian, 'FBI and US Spy Agents Say Bush Spiked Bin Laden Probes Before 11 September.'
Related link: Story: PATTI SMITH RECITES "PEOPLE HAVE THE POWER" Guest:
- Patti Smith, singer, songwriter, and activist. For nearly 30 years Patti Smith has been one of New York's most beloved punk rock poet. Today she shares her thoughts on moving forward after the Sept. 11 attacks and offers up a stirring spoken-word version of her anthem, "People Have the Power."
Story: "DAY OF ATTUNEMENT OBSERVING 9-11 THE JEWISH WAY" In last week's Village Voice, Richard Goldstein wrote, "This year, the 11th falls right in the middle of the week that runs from Rosh Hashanah to Yom Kippur, which Jews call the Days of Awe. And the holidays begin, even more auspiciously, on the Sabbath. I doubt that the networks will notice this confluence, and that's a shame. The spirit of these days could do much to enrich what promises to be nonstop glop." Today we discuss his article.
Guest:
- Richard Goldstein, executive editor of Village Voice and author of the new book "The Attack Queers: Liberal Society and the Gay Right."
Related link: Story: SCHOLAR /ACTIVISTS NOAM CHOMSKY AND CORNEL WEST ON TERRORISM AFTER 9/11 As we wrap up our special broadcast, we play a few of the voices that have been missing from the mainstream media.
Tape:
- Noam Chomsky, professor of linguistics at MIT, speaking at the 50th anniversary of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting in New York in January.
- Cornel West, professor of African-American studies and philosophy of religion at Princeton University and author of the best-selling book, Race Matters. He was speaking last year in the Bay area at the Mario Savio awards.
